Sydney: The world`s coral reefs may be wiped out within a single generation thanks to the ravages caused by ocean acidification, pollution and overfishing, says an Australian expert.

Roger Bradbury, professor of ecology at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University College, made these observations while sounding the warning bells over the slow death of coral reefs.

Bradbury said that it would be a disaster for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on coral reefs for food in poor tropical countries like Indonesia and the Philippines.

"The scientific evidence for this is compelling and unequivocal, but there seems to be a collective reluctance to accept the logical," a Crawford School statement said.

"That is why we need an enormous reallocation of research, government and environmental effort to understand what has happened, so we can respond the next time we face a disaster of this magnitude," Bradbury added.

"By persisting in the false belief that coral reefs have a future, we grossly misallocate the funds needed to cope with the fallout from their collapse. Money isn`t spent to study what to do after the reefs are gone," Bradbury said.